The Belgian e-commerce sector keeps on growing: during the first three months of 2019, online turnover went up 8 % as the number of online purchases even rose 18 %. Beauty products are the fastest growing sector in the online trade of physical products.
Services, mostly
All Belgians together have spent 2.95 billion euros in their total of 27.1 million online purchases, says the BeCommerce Market Monitor. These purchases were mostly (almost 70 %) services, mostly accommodation and tickets for transport and concerts. One of every ten goods purchases in Belgium now happens online, a figure that also continues to grow.
Laptops are still by far the most popular device to shop online (with more than half of all the purchases), but its share decreases somewhat in favour of mobile phones. However, the latter’s market share is still only 15 %. For payment solutions there is a clear winner too, as Bancontact secures more than half of the purchases. Second and third in this ranking are credit cards and PayPal.
Nine out of ten shoppers are generally happy with their online shopping experience, although this is lower with people who shop online for the first time. Most cited advantages are the low prices, gaining time and the convenience of shopping from home. The most important drawback, according to the participants in the survey, is the cost of shipping.
